Hal Hickel: Animating The Creatures of The Mandalorian and Grogu

This interview was conducted in partnership with VIEW Conference. Hal Hickel will be a featured speaker at VIEW Conference 2026, taking place October 12–16 in Turin, Italy.

The Clan of Two, Din Djarin and Grogu finally made the jump to the silver screen this year in the most spectacular way. The Mandalorian and Grogu not only brought a fresh, new adventure for the beloved heroes–it was a celebration of many Star Wars creatures that never truly got the spotlight. From the Dejarik holochess monsters to the terrifying Amani, Jon Favreau’s film is a visual feast that feels like a Ray Harryhausen epic, full of mythical giants conceptualized by Doug Chiang’s art department and inspired by the stop-motion wonders of Phil Tippett. Most alien species in the past have either supported the storytelling in the background or featured as short vignettes, until now. In The Mandalorian and Grogu, although the titular protagonists are at the center of the plot, the creatures become the highlight in every big moment, especially the ones jumping from animation to live-action: Rotta the Hutt, Zeb Orellios, and Embo. For animation supervisor Hal Hickel, working on this new Star Wars story was a dream come true and a challenge like no other–pushing the visual boundaries of what’s already been established in the TV series onto the big screen while preserving the nostalgia of the Original Trilogy’s practical effects.

The Motion and Emotion of Rotta the Hutt

Although the adventure is focused on Mando and Grogu, Rotta the Hutt is a true protagonist. Having an alien character with so much screen time and dialog brought a level of immersiveness to the film that has been toned down over the years (let it be budgetary or storytelling decisions), especially in the recent Star Wars TV series which has seen more human key characters than fascinating, sentient species taking the spotlight. The CG wonders of ILM, paired with an empathetic vocal performance by Jeremy Allen White, delivered the strongest-yet-most-sensitive Hutt–breaking all stereotypes. “We’ve never seen a Hutt move around before. Jabba just sits there on his plinth. For all we know, he can’t move … he’s so big and heavy and sedentary. I mean, he must have some method of movement because we see him in his palace and then later on his sail barge [in Return of the Jedi], but we never see him move. Same with the Twins … we see them carried around in The Book of Boba Fett, and [in The Mandalorian and Grogu] they’re up on their dais. But Rotta had to be quick and dangerous. He’s fit, he’s a battle Hutt, which we’ve never seen before. Even just something as simple as moving from one side of a scene to another was something that needed to be figured out. We looked at some really helpful references of elephant seals, particularly when they lift the front part of their body up off the ground and walk on their front flippers,” said Hickel.

For Rotta’s introduction in the ring, the animators literally flexed every muscle to showcase the Hutt’s incredible physique and battle might. Figuring out his fighting style was a challenge in and of itself, with sumo wrestling being the main source of inspiration (preferring it over boxing) while also considering his anatomical limitations. He explained, “We came up with some fighting moves like where he drops down flat and rolls sideways and then comes up again, getting close to someone quickly. And then another move where he lifts his tail and spins himself around–hitting the opponent. Those are ideas that came out super early, even in the previs stage, when we were just planning the sequences.”

In terms of emotions, Hal Hickel revealed that there were several discussions about whether Rotta the Hutt should speak Huttese or Basic, and since this was a film targeted for all ages, the consensus was that he mostly spoke the latter (as in English) to avoid having to rely on subtitles. This really helped the audience fully connect with the character and for Jeremy Allen White’s performance to shine through ILM’s animation. “We’ve only seen Hutts as villains–slimy, grotesque, unappealing, almost hard to look at. Rotta needed to be someone that we like. When we first see him, he’s fearsome, but then, in the cell, he is kind of amusing. And then, across the course of the film, we empathize with Rotta; we root for Rotta. And that was a tough lift for a type of alien that we’ve only ever seen as horrible and evil before.” He added, “To me, that’s the funnest challenge … an acting, speaking character who’s central to the film, which for very good reasons is being done as an animated character rather than a practical creation. And on top of that, we’re working with a great director who is also a really good actor and has a great grasp of comedy–he can inform you about subtext and really get into how a performance makes you feel or what a character is feeling.”

To aid framing, lighting, and of course interactivity with the other actors, a physical head with a full paint job of Rotta was created by Legacy Effects based on Doug Chiang’s art department assets. The design was thought to be final, up until the first cut of the film: “We’d veered a little bit off track, making him look a little too human, too friendly, and not enough like Jabba’s son. So, we went back in at the beginning of post-production and did a big redesign on him, which was later in the process than you’d want, but it was really worth doing. Particularly the face we ended up with … you could see Jabba’s chin, etc. It was just things about it that in general looked more like a Hutt than it did before, so it was a good call,” Hickel shared.

Zeb Jumps to Live-action

We got a brief cameo from Zeb Orellios at the end of Season Three, but in The Mandalorian and Grogu the Lasat finally returned as a supporting character–and it felt like a natural transition from Star Wars Rebels into live-action. The animation supervisor explained that the design for Zeb was largely solidified with the work on the TV series by ILP (Important Looking Pirates). For the film, the VFX team had to expand upon his physicality–staying true to the character while making sure he fit into that new environment. “Jon would frequently do little acting videos for Zeb, particularly in little close-up dialogue moments or flying the Razor Crest, where he wanted a really particular kind of humor that, in Zeb’s case, is a little flat and sarcastic … that would go into the mix to really close the deal in terms of Zeb’s performance,” Hickel said.

Steve Blum returned to voice the Lasat–bringing a heartwarming nostalgia for Rebels fans–whereas Matt Leonard portrayed Zeb on set to provide the right physicality–literally dressing the part with detailed costumes (not just acting in a mocap suit). For the action scenes, Hal Hickel shared that Donald Mills (from JJ Dashnaw’s stunt team) brought the parkour experience and the explosive speed that was needed for the capture of Commander Coin: “Jon wanted him to move like a tiger, so we needed somebody who could really move quickly. It was all hand-animated, sort of looking at Donald’s timing and energy.”

The Dejarik Match

The main visual spectacle in The Mandalorian and Grogu is without a doubt the Dejarik match on Shakari. The holochess has been played since the original Star Wars, but a live version has never been seen before. The epic sequence (and many other moments in the film) was a homage to legendary stop motion animator and creature creator of the Original Trilogy Phil Tippett. Tippet Studio did contribute to The Mandalorian and Grogu with the amazing stop motion Hutt Palace sentry droids, but for the Dejarik monsters, Hickel clarified that “for a variety of reasons, it didn’t make sense to do this Dejarik battle as stop motion. We just had too many intricate connections with live-action that was best to do with modern visual effects technology, but we wanted very much the spirit of Phil’s creature designs … it was an animator’s paradise.”

The team took some license with the creature design, especially in terms of anatomy and skin texture: “The whole concept was that what you see in the holochess is the action figure version of creatures that actually exist out in the universe … Now you’re getting to see the real deal.” For example, monsters like Ng’ok, Ghhhk, the Mantellian Savrip, or the K’lor’slug, were grounded enough so that physics applied to them, but how they actually moved and behaved was up to the animator’s imagination. He said, “K’lor’slug’s primary source of inspiration was Randall from Monsters, Inc. because he scampers horizontally and then pops up vertically … we thought that would be good for the creature, so we emulated it. The little Houjix in the holochess is a similar scale to the other creatures, but we decided to make it small, much smaller, almost dog-sized so that it looks a little bit harmless, but then of course it has this electric eel bite! And for Ng’ok, we couldn’t figure out if he had bones in his limbs or if they’re more like tentacles, but it didn’t matter to us.”

The re-design was only part of the challenge. The Dejarik match sequence was a very complicated one to plan out, and that’s when stunt coordinators JJ Dashnaw and Mandy Kowalski were essential to achieve the right level of action and entertainment: “They worked out a bunch of stunt ideas that fed into our previs because, you know, we can imagine things, but ultimately Lateef [Crowder] has to be able to really do Mando’s part.” Hickel added, “We had members of the stunt team playing each of the creatures in color-coded jumpsuits, so we could identify each creature and help compose shots. The stunts evolved during shooting, and even further in the edit. We did postvis on top of the edit before we got into proper post-production, modifying the previous animation to fit within the actual plates that the editors have chosen. Then it finally went into animation, and then the work evolved even further. A lot of moving parts with a lot of creatures.”

Embo and Keibu

Embo was a pleasant surprise for Clone Wars fans–yet another great example of a transition from animation to live-action done right. Hal Hickel admitted the iconic villain was a real challenge, both for his very pushed design and lethal speed. His narrow silhouette and oversized disk-shaped hat is incredibly recognizable, so there was little room to modify it for live-action. Once again, Doug Chiang’s art group delivered a character that is authentic and fits right in against Mando and his crew. But finding a tall stunt performer who could also move very quickly was impossible. “We were thinking about Enter the Dragon where Bruce Lee fights Kareem Abdul-Jabbar–the scale difference between the characters is remarkable, but you can just see such a drastic speed difference between the two. Jon wanted Embo to be able to move every bit as fast as Mando and be lethal,” Hickel said. The logical choice was once again Donald Mills who, although was not as tall as Embo, provided the right speed and physicality to the character, especially in the final bout against Din Djarin: “The trick there was to shoot a scene where Lateef is fighting Donald, and ultimately we have to replace Donald with Embo, who’s very much taller–emulating his speed and fitting our character into that space. We couldn’t have Embo all crouched down to fit into Donald’s space, so we had to do a lot of adjustments, like Mando’s swing height matched the villain’s, for example.”

Embo’s companion, Keibu (not to be confused with his past anooba pet Marrok) was just as visually impressive as his owner, Hickel describing his physicality resembling a dog but with a behavior of a lion.

The Amani Threat

Another surprise in The Mandalorian and Grogu was the Amani, which never looked this scary at Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi. The animation supervisor shared that “the key with those guys ultimately was not to show them more than we had to. In the pit, water helped us … we kept them mysterious for quite a while, and even when they pop up, we don’t see all of them (sort of like the shark in Jaws), because they have quite short legs and super long arms. And then in the tanker, they’re hidden in the shadows … almost like [a Xenomorph from Alien].” The design was also slightly updated to look terrifying, modifying the proportions and adding razor-sharp teeth!

The Majestic Dragonsnake

Same trick, new threat … the Hutts sure know how to feed their enemies to the deadliest creatures. In this case, the Dragonsnake was as majestic as terrifying. This is arguably one of the most dangerous situations Mando has been in, barely making it out alive. The mythical monster came directly from an evocative illustration by Chiang’s team that not only informed the design for the creature but also was a one-to-one match with the introductory sequence when we see the Dragonsnake in full form rising up behind Mando.

Animating the water creature was difficult, Hal Hickel confessed, mainly because “snakes and tentacles are always a pain … There are just a lot of things to do with how you rig them and what controls the animators have a hold of to move it.” However, “This creature had some particular unique features that I hadn’t dealt with before that were super fun. If you look at its snout, where its teeth are, it looks like the bones in your hand .. the way they can flex and curve. Then the teeth themselves could rotate in and out. We kept it subtle, because immediately in the first takes we were doing big movements and it started to look a little bit like a Facehugger from Alien and not a dragon anymore. But we did keep it in there, just that slight weird movement and tension, which was fun to play with.”

For more insights on the animation and VFX behind The Mandalorian and Grogu, join the conversation at VIEW Conference 2026 this October in Turin, Italy.